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The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of literatures and previous studies on the relationship between strategic planning and performance and propose conceptual designs and hypotheses using multidimensional constructs to advance the understanding of this relationship, contribute to existing debates in the extant literature and make recommendations.

A semi-systematic literature and previous studies (studied by various groups of researchers within diverse disciplines) review approach has been used in this paper to contribute to the debate on whether strategic planning affects performance and how. Using more recent knowledge about the strategic planning concept, the semi-systematic review looked at how research within strategic planning has progressed over the past five decades and its relationship with performance.

In the past, the strategic planning performance relationship has been treated as a black box and this paper proposes that the conceptualisation of a number of constructs and the inclusion of strategy implementation will help converting the black box into a white box. To strengthen support for the debate regarding the relationship between strategic planning and performance this paper proposes a further conceptual/operational design, mathematical expressions and hypotheses to be tested empirically in further studies. The proposal provides a conceptualisation of the major constructs (strategy development; strategy implementation; and performance), and the use of strategy implementation as a mediator and/or as a moderator in the planning performance relationship.

This study is limited due to fact that the findings have not been tested empirically, it is not a cross-sectional and/or a longitudinal research and only a limited number of dimensions of strategy development and strategy implementation have been used. In addition, the approach used is a semi-systematic review followed by quantitative thinking, which, in turn, typically assumes the relevance of and a warrant mainly from a positivist epistemology.

The proposed design developed in this paper ensures that core issues in planning performance relationships research are addressed. Furthermore, the inclusion of strategy implementation in planning performance relationship studies means that the whole chain of activities in the strategy process is being considered, drawing a complete and comprehensive conclusion on how strategic planning affects an organisation’s performance. In addition, by separating strategy implementation and by not combining it with formulation/formation activities will theoretically and analytically help to evaluate the importance or role of each stage of the strategy process. Moreover, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of the key concepts as multidimensional constructs contribute to past research gaps. Finally, this paper provides some clarity to many contradictory findings concerning the strategic planning and performance relationship.

With the advance of the Silk Road Initiative proposed by China, it has been a focus of China government to develop strategic emerging industries. The development of strategic emerging industries needs the support of competitive intelligence on many aspects such as strategical planning, policy making, industrial structure adjustment, and technology innovation. However, so far there are few studies toward the competitive intelligence systems for strategic emerging industries. In this article, we focus on a number of issues related to the competitive intelligence for strategic emerging industries in China. First, we conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis on the situations of strategic emerging industries in China, based on which the necessity of building a competitive intelligence (CI) service system for strategic emerging industries is discussed. Next, the authors present a framework of a CI service system for strategic emerging industries in China. The principles, components, working process, and product forms are deeply described. The CI service system proposed in this article consists of a cooperation network platform, three layered organizations, and three systems, which integrates organizations, information, people, network, and service platforms into an ecosystem to offer competitive intelligence supports for government, industry, and enterprises. Finally, the authors discuss a case study of the proposed CI service system for the new energy automobile industry.

One of the key miracles of Japan’s success in dominating international markets for such a long period of time is their approach to strategic planning. This article talks about their success.

It first presents the origins, definition and methodology involved in Hoshin, contrasts it with other approaches to strategic planning and argues the case by demonstrating how Hoshin can be integrated with total quality management and performance measurement, two essential requirements for modern business practice. The paper covers various best practice case studies and concludes with a roadmap for the effective implementation of Hoshin.

The spread of Hosin planning from Japan to the USA has been well documented. The uptake of Hoshin in the West seems on the whole to be associated with organizations that are advocating the use of total quality management. This is an “implicit” consideration that Japanese corporations make, having always based their approach to doing business on the use of quality methods and techniques.

Several case studies of the successful implementation of this pioneering concept are illustrated and a proposed roadmap of Implementing Hoshin Planning is discussed. The roadmap is meant to assist organizations of different sizes and from different sectors, manage their strategic thinking more effectively.

The aim of this paper is to discuss a theoretical framework for increased integration of a company's communication policy, corporate language policy and corporate information portal with a view to facilitating communication management.

The paper draws on selected theoretical contributions on corporate language policy with special emphasis on theoretical considerations on the type of language policies developed and implemented in companies and organisations and on corporate communication with special emphasis on van Riel's common starting points. The empirical basis of the paper is a triangulation of questionnaire data, content analysis data and interview data.

The paper argues that corporate communication has not sufficiently included the operational part of a company's corporate communication. The paper makes the case for a theoretical integration framework based on van Riel's common starting points (CSPs), and argues that corporate communication also needs to include the corporate language policy and the corporate information portal, defined as a modern information directory offering communicators concrete communication data for use in concrete text production situations.

The paper proposes a CSP‐based theoretical integration framework and makes the case for a Holy Trinity in corporate communications based on the communication policy, the corporate language policy and the corporate information portal.

In the context of investment decisions, the intricate interplay between exogenous shocks and their influence on investor confidence significantly shapes their behaviors and, consequently, their outcomes. Investment decisions are influenced by uncertainties, exogenous shocks as well as the sentiments and confidence of investors, factors typically overlooked by decision-makers. This study will meticulously examine these multifaceted influences and discern their intricate hierarchical nuances in the sentiments of industrial entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employing the robust framework of the generalized linear latent and mixed models (GLLAMM), this research will thoroughly investigate individual and group idiosyncrasies present in diverse data compilations. Additionally, it will delve deeply into the exogeneity of disturbances across different sectors and regions.

Relevant insights gleaned from this research elucidate the adverse influence of exogenous forces, including pandemics and financial crises, on the confidence of industrial entrepreneurs. Furthermore, a significant discovery emerges in the regional analysis, revealing a notable homogeneity in the propagation patterns of industrial entrepreneurs' perceptions within the sectoral and regional context. This finding suggests a mitigation of regional effects in situations of global exogenous shocks.

Within the realm of academic inquiry, this study offers an innovative perspective in unveiling the intricate interaction between external shocks and their significant impacts on the sentiment of industrial entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the utilization of the robust GLLAMM captures the hierarchical dimension of this relationship, enhancing the precision of analyses. This approach provides a significant impetus for data-informed strategic directions.

The aim of this study is to make students understand the significance of strategy formulation and the impact of internal and external factors on the strategy adopted by the firm. Upon the completion of this case study, the students will be able to achieve the following: • map out relevant macro-environment strategical factors of an organization; • assessing organizations industry and competitive environment; • outline strategic group maps to assess positions of key competitors; • develop issues priority matrices; • testing competitive power of resources; and • identifying an organizations internal strengths and external threats.

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic left few organizations untouched and many entrepreneurs fighting to stay afloat. Here we look at the survival dilemma faced by the founder of Little Birds Kindergarten, in Doha, Qatar. Founded by a local Qatari businesswoman, the kindergarten offered a British-style curriculum and an Early Years Foundation Stage structure; with her profound passion for technology, the founder (here called Fatma) has always believed that integrating technology into a child’s early learning opens the door to limitless opportunities and potential. Therefore, she ensured that the kindergarten consistently invested in advanced educational technology and the accompanying software. Yet, while the reputation of Little Birds Kindergarten stayed high, the COVID-19 pandemic stunted the growth in enrolments. Fatma stopped paying herself a salary and even drew on her own savings to keep the kindergarten going but it still did not earn enough to compensate for her initial investment. So, despite her passionate concern for the kindergarten, she worried about being unable to keep it afloat for much longer. The purpose of this case study is to shed light on the strategic posture, performance and market position of one kindergarten. From there, it surveys the opportunities in the education industry that are unique to student enrolment and highlights what a kindergarten can do to develop a survival strategy.

The case is suitable for teaching basic and advanced courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the medium‐term planning problem in supply chain networks. Based on a literature review, a comprehensive analytical planning model for the three echelon tactical planning problem in supply chain networks is developed which is applicable in a hierarchical planning frame.

The approach used was mathematical mixed integer programming to model three echelon production‐distribution networks embedded in the supply chain planning matrix frame. Application of the model in a multi‐site planning process based on a case study from the industrial transformer supply chain was also undertaken.

Integrated multi‐period medium‐term planning with customer oriented single sourcing is an efficient method to implement mathematical optimal solutions in practice as it provides comprehensive tactical plans and network designs. These can be used for scenario analysis in a coordination process with independent supply chain partners.

The implementation of a mathematical optimal plan in a complex business network structure requires a big‐bucket model solution to grant the plan's stability via sufficient time buffers.

The paper displays development of a multi‐period three echelon tactical production‐distribution‐transportation model with different capacities, transportation modes, product types and single sourcing decisions.

This chapter considers internationalisation strategies to promote international student recruitment and mobility as the central tools of contemporary universities operating in a global and competitive context. It presents an overview of these strategies in the public university context in Italy, which serves as a case study to highlight how universities increasingly give relevance to the internationalisation of education in their strategic plans to attract overseas students and encourage incoming and outgoing student mobility. The document-based analysis of the Italian case reveals a prominent commitment from public universities to promoting internationalisation through different strategic performance objectives that contribute to the internationalisation of students and fuel their mobility and recruitment on a global scale. This research provides empirical evidence of the saliency of the internationalisation of education within the strategic missions of universities. It also addresses the connection between the internationalisation of university education and performance-based funding.

The Chinese Government encourages firms to diffuse their operational-level environmental management (EM) into their organization’s mission and strategy to develop strategic EM to promote sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to utilize two concepts of institutional theory (isomorphic pressures and decoupling behavior) to assess how different institutional forces arising from Chinese macro-level factors (market pressure, business turbulence, legal voids, carbon policy, structural-level governmental interference and guanxi with government) influence the efficacy of strategic EM.

In partnership with a major consulting firm in China, the authors collect multi-informant survey data from 183 manufacturing firms drawn from a variety of industries for testing the hypotheses posited.

The efficacy of strategic EM in the sampled firms is confirmed by the positive association with environmental performance. The authors also find that the efficacy of strategic EM is weakened by market pressure, business turbulence and legal voids, whereas it is strengthened by structural-level governmental interference. However, carbon policy and guanxi with government do not impact it significantly.

To extend the findings on the environmental importance of strategic EM, future research can develop and validate a management framework to guide the adoption of strategic EM. With regard to the four valid macro-level factors influencing the efficacy of strategic EM, future research can identify the reasons (e.g. conflict with corporate functions) behind them to aid manufacturers to mitigate their negative influence or enhance the positive influence on strategic EM.

China’s Government and its manufacturers (or those sharing a similar institutional environment) can expand the scope of their EM efforts from operational-level EM practices to strategic EM. The findings on the valid macro-level factors have led to practical suggestions for government bodies and manufacturers to improve the efficacy of strategic EM adoption. Overall, the implications help achieve the higher levels of firm-level environmental performance and alleviate the global pollution problem.

A particular value of this work lies in the demonstration of combining institutional theory (organization decoupling, isomorphic pressures) with practical consideration such as guanxi with government in the particular institutional environment of China to help address an important and context-related problem, environmental performance.

This article analyzes the strategic use of microcomputers and software packages in corporate planning and decision making in SMEs. Data were collected from 44 SMEs from three cities in the Republic of Botswana to study their perceptions about the use of computer‐based technology to solve managerial problems, and analysed using simple descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that SMEs conduct both strategic and operational planning activities. However, microcomputers and software packages were used primarily for operational and administrative tasks rather than for strategic planning. SMEs perceive that strategic planning is costly and time‐consuming, and hence appropriate only for large firms. The study also showed that firm size and strategic orientation are related to the use of computer technology for strategic decision making. The major implication of the findings for future research has been identified and presented.